Final hour slump

Tue, 20 Jul Closing

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The benchmark Indian indices gave in to the weakness in index heavyweights and nosedived into the negative territory during the closing hour of trade. The BSE Sensex edged lower by around 50 points (down 0.3%) whereas NSE Nifty closed the day with losses of around 18 points (down 0.3%). BSE Midcap and Small cap indices also closed the day lower by 0.3%

The Indian and Japanese markets were the only ones in Asia that closed lower today. A mixed trend is being witnessed across Europe as well. The rupee was trading at Rs 47.3 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Zee Entertainment featured amongst the top losers in the media pack today along with PVR, INOX and Deccan Chronicle. This is despite the company recording a growth of 42% YoY in revenues for 1QFY11. While advertising revenues increased by 90.4%, subscription revenues showed an increase of 8.5% as compared to the corresponding period last fiscal. Subscription revenues from domestic DTH witnessed an increase of 52% YoY. Operating profit (EBITDA) for the quarter increased by 59.8% YoY, while the operating profit margin stood at 27.6%. The company’s bottomline recorded a growth of 64.3% YoY.

Engineering major BHEL has bagged a Rs 27 bn contract for setting up a 1,200 MW coal-based thermal power plant in Chhattisgarh. The contract has been awarded by DB Corp group. BHEL's scope of work in the contract includes design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of the equipment. Independent power producers (IPPs) accounted for nearly 90% of the total orders received by BHEL in the last fiscal. Of the total orders of 16,489 MW power plant equipment received by BHEL during the year, those from IPPs alone accounted for 14,689 MW. The company currently manufactures equipment that can generate 15,000 MW of electricity and its augmentation to 20,000 MW per annum is underway.

India's largest automaker Maruti Suzuki will have to curtail its growth due to capacity constraints. The company has decided to limit exports to the last year's level due to shortage of capacity to meet incremental demand.

Maruti exported 1.5 lakh units in FY10, the highest ever export figures, with the compact car A-star alone clocking over 1.3 lakh units. On the exports front, what helped numbers was the demand from Europe wherein a few governments came out with policies that favored sale of small and fuel efficient cars. With Maruti already having a presence in these markets, such a policy did wonders for the company’s export sales (grew 111% YoY in FY10).